So it’s been a while.. sorry about that! Been trying to catch up on some of my books, and read some non-ARC’s that I had picked up.

The first book I’ll mention today is the latest one I finished, called Santa Responds: He’s Had Enough.. and He’s Writing Back!. I found this one on Shelf Awareness, and the ad looked interesting, so I figured I’d bite and request it. It came very quickly, which is a plus in my book. The premise is simple – after hundreds of years of writing to Santa with our wants and needs and have-to-haves, he finally decides enough is enough, and it’s time to respond to some of these letters.
The letters look like they were actually written by kids (and some adults.) There’s misspellings, grammatical mistakes, big sloppy handwriting of a little one still learning, to the neat script of a girl trying to be a big girl.
Santa’s responses are blunt and right to the point. He’ll tell the child exactly why he or she got what they did. The way he tells them though, might not be everyone’s cup of tea. He can be rude, abrasive, derogatory. Some folks might get a chuckle out of it, some might be put off and offended. It’s meant to be humorous, but it might be a good idea, if you buy it, to flip through it and read some of the responses first.

The Fireman’s Wife, by Jack Riggs, is next. I was a bit mixed about this. I was stoked when I nabbed a copy through Library Thing, and I liked it well enough, but it felt as if something was missing and I can’t put my finger on what exactly. The ending was bittersweet..
Like the title says, it’s about a fireman’s wife. He’s recently been promoted to Captain of his station, and is very dedicated to his job. She is a very unhappy wife cheating on him with another firefighter, who has recently been promoted to Captain another station as well. Caught in the middle is their teenage daughter, a softball whiz, and pretty mad at her parent, especially mom, for putting her in the middle.
After a sudden opportunity for a chance to take Kelly to a 2 week softball camp arises, they decide to jump on it. Peck stays behind for work reasons. After dropping Kelly off after an argument, she heads to her mothers house in the mountains for an extended vacation. She feels more at peace there then at home, by the marshes, and uses the time to try and figure out what to do.
Shortly after arriving though, a problem arises. The land surrounding her mothers is being bought up by developers, and they’re eying her mothers next. An old “trusted” family friend assures them nothing will happen, but let’s slip he knows more about the project then he really should. His advice is to accept the bid for the land, and be prepared to leave soon. It’s an unacceptable decision, and the frantic hunt for the deed begins, stating the land legally belongs to the family, and not this shady churchman.
Back home, the firemen are getting restless when they hear of brushfires starting on dry land. It’s been a dry season and the potential for a disaster is great. Then the call comes that they’re needed to battle a dangerous fire..
Through it all is Kelly. She’s an angry teenager, understandably. She sneaks away from her camp and goes home to her father. Because of her actions, he winds up bringing her back to the camp, and visits his wife briefly to discuss some things. He’s hurt, but there is promise they can work through their problems.
In the end, some things work out, and others are lost forever. Like I said, bittersweet.

Another one that I read is DNA, by W. Craig Reed. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too thrilled with it. I wanted to stop reading, but I can’t really do that. I would just nag myself to finish it and donate it.
Basically, a super virus, dubbed Satan’s Sister, is developed. Within hours of being infected, the subject dies, and there’s no cure for it. So naturally, the bad guys catch wind of it, and decide to get their paws on it and wipe out as many people as possible with it.
A Navy SEAL team is sent in to try and stop this impending disaster. After a semi-failed mission to protect one of the scientists, things settle down, and life goes on. Years later, one of the SEAL’s learns his true identity, and is asked to pick up this mission again. This time, to stop the distribution of Satan’s Sister.
It read like an action movie, in a way. Russian scientists, Arab terrorists, things get blown up, snipers, drugs.. Lot of military terms and scientific explanations of what’s going on. Left my head swimming.
By originally advertising that it would be similar to Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, it set a high bar for itself, and it fell short. It was fast paced, but the plot did not appeal to me at all.

The rest that I’ve read were non-Arc’s.. Katherine Neville’s The Eight, Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher (very creepy, reminded me of War of the Worlds,) and something else which escapes my mind. There’s also been outings for Halloween with my kids, and a trip home to take my daughter to see the Rockette’s and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Been 15 years at least since I last went, but it was so worth it. The show is so awesome in so many ways.. Absolutely loved the dancing Santa’s!